As the budget deadline which can spell the end of the current coalition looms on the horizon in mere days, a Knesset Finance Committee meeting on Wednesday to vote on an extension of the budget deadline ended without a vote amid growing conflict between Likud and Blue and White. If the bill extending the deadline is not passed by Monday, new elections will be automatically called, the fourth election in a time span of just over a year and a half. The bill to delay the deadline, proposed by Derech Eretz MK Zvi Hauser, passed in its first reading on Monday but still must pass three readings before becoming law. Likud coalition chairman Miki Zohar demanded four conditions for passing the bill at the Finance Committee meeting on Wednesday, including designating funds in the budget for Chareidi yeshivah and religious Zionist yeshivas and schools as well as educational programs for underprivileged children. However, Zohar’s demands were rejected by Blue and White chairman MK Eitan Ginzburg, who said that the purpose of the meeting was not to decide on an “alternative state budget.” “There are five days left,” Hauser warned Likud. “This is crazy!” (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

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